Introducing a new girl to an older lady.

[DowntonCrabby]

Evening kitty lovers!

We’re so excited to be introducing a new wee girl to our family and to our older lady in a few weeks.

I’d love to hear any tips we maybe haven’t thought of to let the ladies get used to each other.

Our old girl is 16, we rescued her at 3ish as a farm cat being picked on by other cats. She has become an absolute baby, she’d genuinely be happy with you carrying her round like an actual baby or on your lap. She spends a lot of time tucked down my PJ hoodies!

Our new wee girl will come home in 3 weeks, she’s quiet compared to the rest of the litter, a few of them are hugely playful but she’s happy to explore/be handled or play, she’s not desperate to escape to cause mischief like the others! It’s a friend who has the litter so we can be around our new girl as much as we need/want.

We’ve started scent swapping and will up this with litter as well as a towel we’re using. They’ll be fed at different times/rooms/ food until 12m.

What else can we do? Any advice at all will be very welcome. We’ll keep them apart initially and have decided our old lady will continue to have free range of the house but the baby will be shut in her room with litter/food/water if we’re all out. This will likely be not at all until late Aug then maybe 4 hours at a time but only a couple of days a month until the end of the year. She won’t get out at all until she’s spayed!!

What have we not thought about? We’ve been so happy with our girl for 13 years but have never had a kitten.

Why are you doing this? It's really unfair to your existing cat. Cats are in general solitary and your existing cat is quite elderly now.

This has got disaster written all over it - your cat is about to have her territory invaded

My advice is don't do it. It's rather selfish

We took in a stray with older cats when I was a child. They adapted quite quickly, didn't seem threatened by a kitten as it was physically small. They kept away at first as unsure when it walked about, but fairly quickly ate together when they realised it was staying. All three guarded the garden together from other cats, guess they didn't want anymore in!

I had a 2 year old and 2 month old (she was so tiny, mum had left her). I put a sock with older cats smell on near younger one and vise versa. Cat went in carrier whilst kitten had a wander then I swapped them over. They had the front room together that night. They sniffed each other, cat hissed but took about a week and cat was licking kitten. Good luck

I’m in the same position as you OP but it has all happened very quickly. You at least sound very prepared. We have had our rescue girl for 3 years and she’s a big softy aged 9. Last weekend we were on our staycation and found a tiny kitten mewing in a field at sunset. We took her in as we thought a fox would kill her. We took her to the vet and asked the neighbours and two local cat rescue shelters. They all told us the same thing....keep her, the fields are full of them. We arrived home today. We are carefully trying to slowly introduce them. Kitty is in the living room while the wise woman has the run of house and garden. We’re just getting them used to sounds and scents for a few days before face to face through a glass door. I’ll let you know if Ipick up any tips or make mistakes. This may be hard on the older cat but at least we’ve saved the kitten’s life plus I was overruled by my husband and family on leaving her with the vet. The vet is exhausted with kittens at the moment. I really hope our cat accepts the wee one.

If the mature cat is fed first and has priorities in terms of space and sleeping choice they are likely to be more accepting. Keep your routine with existing cat and kitten has to fit in around this.

I suggest keeping them apart for 12 months and then some.
Do you realise a kitten will want a playmate for about 18 months and your very elderly cat will not get any peace for the rest of its days.
Seriously as much as you want a kitten it is very selfish to do so when your cat is so old, allow it to have peace in its final years instead of being terrorised. Sorry if its not the news you wanted to hear.

I've introduced two young boys (about five months) to my old lady, the first she hated at first but now they're best friends and follow each other round - I think he tries to protect her, which is sweet. The other was a year or so later, she pretty much just ignored him from the first and still does. I didn't even try to keep them separate, they all just sorted themselves out.